Bryce Brown was on fire in the second half Saturday night for the Tigers.
Despite the loss, the senior guard did all that he could to bring Auburn back into the game against Kentucky, scoring 25 of his 28 points in the second half. Brown was 7-for-7 on field goals and 5-for-5 from three in the second half, and scored nearly half of the Tiger’s 53 second-half points.
After the Wildcats went on a 9-0 run to end the first half Auburn knew it was in trouble. Kentucky came out of the break hitting on all cylinders, leading by as many as 17 points.
Brown took control in the timeouts.
“I just tried to encourage my guys, me and Jared both,” Brown said. “Just try to let them know that we were right there, and it wasn't going to happen in one possession. We just tried to chip away at the lead, little by little, every chance we got.”
Brown began his second half scoring with a jumper to cut into the 16-point Wildcat lead and took off from there. Just a minute later, he had a four-point play off a foul by Kentucky’s PJ Washington. Two possessions later, Brown hit his third 3-pointer to bring the deficit to eight.
“I kind of figured they would try to run me off the line,” Brown said. “I just stayed aggressive.”
After being briefly taken out, Brown re-entered the game and hit back-to-back 3-pointers to bring the Tigers within three points, and the sold-out crowd Auburn Arena erupted.
“Great environment tonight,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “I appreciate the energy Auburn Arena had tonight.”
Kentucky would pull away again, but Brown came back with a dunk to cut the lead to six, getting the home crowd back into the game. After two made free throws by Jared Harper, Brown would again hit a three to bring Auburn within three points of tying the game at 73.
“When you have a team that makes threes like this, they're never out of the game,” Kentucky head coach John Calipari said. "We're lucky to get out of here alive."
Bringing the game within three seemed to be the theme for the Brown and the Tigers on Saturday, as again with just under two minutes left in the game, Brown hit on both of his free-throw attempts, once again cutting the deficit for Auburn to three points. Brown finished the game making all six of his free throw attempts.
A late three by Harper gave Auburn its first lead of the second half, but it was soon erased as the Wildcats took back the lead on free throws, and eventually won. However, without Brown’s second half resurgence Auburn may have never been in a position to win.
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